This post aims to give the avid Gucci bag lover a walkthrough to Gucci’s print ads and advertising campaigns since its inception in 1921 until present. You will have a better appreciation of the Gucci house codes through the evolution of its visual and marketing identity. Most of all, you will surely enjoy the vintage Gucci ads archive in this post!

A significant aspect of Gucci’s success as a global brand is its advertising efforts. To advertise is to build the fantasy and the wonder around the fashion house which, through time, has developed with the advent of print and photography technologies.

(See: Gallery of Gucci print ad and campaign archive from 1920s to the present at the end of this post!)

To address the wide range of Gucci advertising, perhaps we could begin with the 2010 Gucci Spring-Summer collection Timeless. To market this new watch collection, Gucci pulled from its archives two iconic personalities from the 1970s: British actor Peter Sellers and the German supermodel Veruschka.

2010 Gucci Timeless Ad Campaign with Peter Sellers and Veruschka

Peter was shown in a photo in an airport accompanied by his wife. The two were lugging Gucci travel bags. Veruschka, on the other hand, was promenading about in a wide-brimmed hat with her dogs,and carrying two Gucci shoulder bags.

Gucci’s history plays an integral role in the houses desire for renewal and innovation. These are the ideas that immediately occur to us as we survey the photography archives of former advertising campaigns. The photos speak not only of Gucci’s heritage, but of society as a whole. They are frozen testaments of the fashion zeitgeist of the times, and have been instrumental to the way fashion had been communicated.

An important period in Gucci advertising was during Tom Ford’s era as creative director from 1994 to 2004. Although in charge of Gucci’s image since 1994, it was not only until Fall/Winter 1995 that Gucci began its seasonal campaigns. The campaigns during his time were extensions of Gucci’s creative strategy, and are closely linked with the creative style of Mario Testino, the photographer.

Over the course of these two decades, three words largely describe the advertisements: luxury, strength, and sex. Not only Mario Testino had exemplified these themes, as various photographers such as Luis Sanchis (Spring/Summer 1998), Steven Klein (Fall/Winter 1998), Alexei Hay (Fall/Winter 2000), Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (Spring/Summer 2001), and Terry Richardson (Fall/Winter 2001 and Spring/Summer 2002) all exhibited the sensual Gucci trademark.

The last of ad campaigns under Tom Ford was for Fall/Winter 2004.

Gucci entered a period of uncertainty post-Tom Ford. In the three seasons from Spring/Summer Resort 2005, Resort 2005, and Fall/Winter 2005, Alessandra Facchinetti took the helm as Gucci’s creative director. This stay was short-lived as she allegedly left the house due to disagreements with the management. Nevertheless, in her few seasons at Gucci, she employed Mario Testino, Craig McDean, and Mert & Marcus for the ad campaigns.

Succeeding Facchinetti was Frida Giannini. Gucci under Frida Giannini took a drastic turn, as the house’s advertising campaigns was redefined through a shift in overt sexuality to a more understated sensuality. Giannini’s first ad campaign for Gucci was Spring/Summer 2005.

The Gucci of di Marco and Giannini focused more in tradition rediscovery more than scandal creation. From Mario Testino’s scandalous imagery under Tom Ford, Giannini’s advertising campaigns highlighted paying tribute to the past and craftsmanship tradition of Gucci. Frequent collaborators include art direction with REM agency [Ruini and Mariotti], and photography by British photographer Craig McDean.

McDean’s dynamic portraiture propelled Gucci toward a real-life representation of the models and the Gucci articles, without making them look static nor lose their aspirational value. Moreover, Giannini has commissioned Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, as well as Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott — two power dus in fashion photography — for her publicity campaigns.

The last of ad campaigns under Frida Giannini was for the Cruise 2015 collection.

Under Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s aesthetics has drastically changed. This began by the Pre-Fall 2015 collection.

The clean lines employed by Giannini was subverted by Michele’s over-the-top bordering on kitschy designs, prompting the photographer such as Glen Luchford and Ignasi Monreal to execute the designer’s whimsical fantasies.

2016 Gucci Fall Winter ad campaign

Clearly, Gucci has been long way ahead its early black and white campaigns of featuring merely its bags in front of iconic Florentine backdrops. Gucci is full steam ahead with executing its vision in the the contemporary world.